Trailer for Richard Linklater's 12-year film 'Boyhood' released

The trailer for Richard Linklater's latest and most ambitious film Boyhood was released online Friday.

The film, which is due out this summer, boasts an unusual method used to show its main character aging throughout the film. The director decided to film the movie over a period of 12 years, the Los Angeles Times reports.

He sporadically filmed the movie over that span, allowing lead, Ellar Coltrane, to grow up rather than use a bunch of different actors. He was all of 7 when filming first began. Ethank Hawke, who also stars in the film said the movie was like "human time-lapse photography."

Boyhood follows Coltrane's Mason, whose mother packs him and his sister, played by Linklater's real life daughter Lorelai, into the car and moves them to Houston. There, they reunite with their father, played by Hawes, who had been living in Alaska.

The trailer shows bits of Mason when he is quite young and on into his teenage years where he is seen facing common events in every young boy's life. Though the plot isn't anything new, the film has been anticipated since it got excellent reviews at the Sundance Film Festival.